Tyria Pride 2018!

For the third year in a row, as part of Pride Month, we are organising a march across all of Tyria, from Ebonhawke to Rata Sum, to show support for our LGBTQ+ friends & guildies! This year, both NA & EU will be travelling on the same routes on the same day!

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Citizens of Tyria!

You are invited to join us in celebrating Tyria Pride 2018 this June 23rd and 24th at 16:00 CEST on EU and 4 PM EDT on NA! on both days!

We march primarily to show our support for gender and sexual minority players, some of which have found Guild Wars 2 to be one of a few safe places to simply be themselves and get away from the drama and the politics of the outside world.

Allies and proponents of equality for all are especially welcome to attend as are those who are members of LGBTQ+ communities!

On Day 1, we will travel from Ebonhawke to Lion's Arch, and on Day 2, we will proceed from Lion's Arch until we reach the steps of Rata Sum.

And don't worry if you can't make it on both days, or of you can't make it at 16:00 - the events will go on for about 3 hours each day, so you can hop on at any time during the event!

Thank you for your time.

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When do we meet?

Commanders & organizers will begin gathering at 3 PM CEST / EDT, so you should already be able to reach us one hour in advance. You can contact us in-game, or join us on TeamSpeak (ts.theopencommunity.org [EU] / solts.org, PW: franticzebra [NA])

Where do we meet?

Day 1: Ebonhawke! If you don't have explored yet, do not worry! You can reach Ebonhawke through a portal in Divinity's Reach, so we will also have a commander showing people the way through DR if needed.

Day 2: Lion's Arch!

How do we get on the same instance of the map?

We will be using TeamSpeak to taxi people onto the same map via squadjoins. If you don't wish to join us on TeamSpeak, you can whisper one of the people on the contact list below and they'll help you join the correct map in-game.

You don't need a microphone to join Teamspeak, and you don't need to speak, so feel free to join even if you're feeling shy \^\^

Teamspeak information:

EU: ts.theopencommunity.org, no password

NA: solts.org, PW: franticzebra

What do I bring?

You don't have to bring anything! But, party boxes, kites, transformations, fireworks, and other fun things of all kinds are of course welcome! If you wish to dye your armor in the traditional pride flag colours, that's also a fun way to express support!

Fundraiser

But wait! We're not just walking the walk, we're also talking the talk and wanting to assist enacting actual change and improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people worldwide, so we are running a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. You can find it at gofundme.com/tyriapride2018!

Who can I contact about this?

Lelling.6795 [EU]

AngelWriter.3652 [NA]

If you would like to help organize this event, please let me know by contacting me in-game, on the forums, or by replying to this thread!

Please be aware that we are marching in the name of unity and acceptance. Any attacks or discrimination against anyone, whether based on religion, sexuality, race, specific minorities, ethnic groups, religions, etc. are not welcome at this event. This is also not a platform for political or religious debate. There are plenty of other places and times that are appropriate to start conversations regarding politics, policies, or religion.

I've seen a tumblr post about this recently and thought about maybe participating this time since I couldn't get the chance last year. As a trans man and a fellow part of the LGBTQ+ community this is interesting to see.
Looking forward to maybe show up if nothing gets in my way. Wish you all good luck and lots of fun anyways!

@Lelling.6795 said:
Oh btw - this Saturday, June 9th, we are also doing a mini-pride promo event through the Path of Fire maps!
No mounts (or gliding) required

What will this consist of? How are you going to get people through the PoF maps if they don't have at least a raptor? I'm interested but admittedly confused.

Definitely going to be at the main event regardless

mesmer portals I assume?

I suppose! I've done a few PoF hero point trains with alts, and while I have all the mounts, the ones that advertise as needing nothing but raptor use a lot of portals already. Because of that, I wasn't sure if you could actually take someone through with only portals.

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:
I forgot about it. I was focused on finishing a Bug in the System and working on a 3D part design. To bad these things aren't late in the evening. Us night folks usually miss out on daytime events.

Nobody owns the exclusive right to these marches in GW2, so if you want to organize one at a time suitable to you, go for it!

@Gwaihir.1745 said:
Generally people seek validation in real life not in a video game.

I'm not sure, but I think you either called me a computer-generated NPC, or said that there is some difference between "me interacting with people in GW2" and "me interacting with people over FaceTime" despite both of them being mediated by technology...

We had a blast. Huge thanks to Lelling and Opencommunity for making this possible. And Gaile for joining in Caledon forest! to everyone! This was truly one of the best events I ever attended. Over 5 hours worth every second!

Just letting you know that over the five years that I've been playing Guild Wars 2, Tyria Pride 2018 was my first time visiting the march. While I'm not a fan of the abundance of pink, I wish everyone in the march to live long and happy lives.

@Hoodie.1045 said:
Just letting you know that over the five years that I've been playing Guild Wars 2, Tyria Pride 2018 was my first time visiting the march. While I'm not a fan of the abundance of pink, I wish everyone in the march to live long and happy lives.

Currently posting in intervals on my tumblr about it. So keep an eye out for everything I post under the tags #gw2tyriapride2018 and #tyriapride2018
It'll take a lot of time and effort to get everything uploaded since I took 300+ screenshots of the event.
Don't mind me censoring names or chats. I don't know if everyone is okay with being shown and I respect everyone's privacy. http://is-it-because-im-charr.tumblr.com/

We had a blast. Huge thanks to Lelling and Opencommunity for making this possible. And Gaile for joining in Caledon forest! to everyone! This was truly one of the best events I ever attended. Over 5 hours worth every second!

I am honestly happy to have so many players feel welcomed and safe to express themselves, here in GW2 over the years.

Glad you all had a great time and had reason to feel loved within the community.

Maybe it's the recent turn of events with everyone in the community sticking together to fight bigger causes.
The LGBT+ people are a big part of us, and, just like in Tyria when everyone respects and accepts each other, our true strength and unity, shines.

@ReV.6097 said:
I haven't been overly supportive with this in truth...
..but

I am honestly happy to have so many players feel welcomed and safe to express themselves, here in GW2 over the years.

Glad you all had a great time and had reason to feel loved within the community.

Maybe it's the recent turn of events with everyone in the community sticking together to fight bigger causes.
The LGBT+ people are a big part of us, and, just like in Tyria when everyone respects and accepts each other, our true strength and unity, shines.

Thanks so much for your kind words! I know it sometimes seems that the world is too polarized and dialogue is impossible, and you either have to be fully on board without ever criticising anyone or any thought in any way or you are branded sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. but I think as long as we keep an open mind and listen to each other, we can grow as a community.

Thanks so much for joining everyone! If you have any comments, feedback, etc. for next year, feel free to write them here, or message me in-game!

Here's already some stuff we noticed:

We did notice a large amount of people who struggled with joining the group by themselves - either not knowing how to use the LFG, or that you can join a squad without asking for an invite. This is information that we'll add to the info post!

We'll also be adding a strict time when exactly LFGs will be up, when we start gathering, and when we start marching. For some people, starting at 16:00 CEST meant they'd already be there half an hour early, while others interpreted it as that being the time to show up. Adding a breakdown of the times should help this

Another common, rather amusing, thing that happened was British people coming an hour early. Apparently it's a common misconception that British people use GMT as their time zone all year round, but in fact, for half of the year, Britain is in BST [GMT+1], so the majority of my 15:00 CEST - 16:00 CEST conversations was explaining to British people which time zone they're actually in I'll make sure to put a little reminder up for Brits for next year ^^